Cabinet hikes carpet area for affordable housing, higher demand seen The decision could help homebuyers access bigger, ready-tomove-in houses at lower costs. In some good news for builders and middle-class homebuyers, the Union cabinet increased the carpet area of houses under the government’s affordable housing scheme on Thursday. The decision could help homebuyers access bigger, ready-to-move-in houses at lower costs, while developers with large inventories could look forward to renewed demand, triggering a virtuous cycle of employment generation and economic growth. The tweaks to the NDA government’s flagship housing programme—pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Pmay)—follows requests from the industry which was saddled with thousands of flats that had margin- ally bigger carpet areas than allowed under the scheme. In the first middle income category (Rs6-12 lakh/annum), the carpet area was raised from 90 to 120 sq. m (968 sq. ft - 1184 sq. ft). In the income category of Rs12-